Steel manufacturer creates 108 jobs on $81.M modernization project

July 26, 2019 – Gerdau Ameristeel, a steel manufacturer, is receiving a $20 million investment from the Canadian government toward an $81.2 million project to modernize its production lines and reduce its manufacturing costs. 

The project will create 108 jobs and maintain 710 more at the company’s Whitby and Cambridge, Ontario facilities. 

Gerdau specializes in the transformation of scrap into steel. It is a major supplier of long steel in the Americas and one of the largest recyclers in the world. The company says the project will also allow it to reduce the amount of scrap metal going to landfills and improve production capability for billets, which are semi-finished long steel products used to produce other steel-based products such as angles, rebar, flats or channels.

“Gerdau is committed to innovation and to the advancement of strategic investments that improve our process efficiency, product offerings and environmental performance,” says Chia Yuan Wang, president of Gerdau Long Steel North America. “This project will help us continue making world-class steel in Ontario.”

In 2018, the Canadian steel industry employed more than 23,000 Canadians and contributed $4.3 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product.